September 2025 Newsletter

Hi Everyone,

Please find below a brief update on Estate matters.

Drains

Premier Drainage Solutions (“Premier”) finished their planned works in the third week of August.  We found them to be an extremely professional company and the work was completed to a very good standard.  

The schedule of works with Premier involved 37 different items that our CCTV study had shown were the most critical.

13 of these we and our SuDS consultant had thought could be resolved with root clearance and relining of the pipes, but on further inspection and root clearance, 10 of these needed the drain to be replaced involving further excavation and cost.  Also, as we had been unable to get Thames Water to even look at their infrastructure on Harebell Hill, Broad Highway or Oxshott Rise, we asked Premier to spend 14 days trying to clear the blockages on these main drains.  All of this resulted in a substantial over-run on our budget.

You may remember that we did manage to get Thames Water’s subcontractor (Lanes) to come and sort out the issues on The Oxshott Way and Mizen way storm sewers.  They confirmed that this work was completed satisfactorily after their engineer visit.

During the torrential downpour July 31st we had a major flooding incident where the Oxshott Way sewer backed up and flooded back through the gulley at 16OW.

Upon investigation by Premier we found that the Oxshott Way storm sewer was completely blocked, and contrary to their assurances Thames Water/Lanes had not completed this work in a satisfactory manner.  Premier attempted over 3 days to clear the blockage, but were only partly successful.  After further discussion by OWRA with Thames Water, Lanes attended on both days over the weekend of 13/14 September and appear to have managed to clear the blockage although further repairs by them may still be necessary.

The operation of our drains is wholly reliant on the Thames Water infrastructure working properly.  It is clear that they do not see the maintenance of their asset as priority and how we manage this ongoingly needs to be discussed at the AGM.

Gates

Works on the estate gates has consumed much focus in summer months. The expected / budgeted works to renew and replace old / failing ducting and cabling was completed; additional and unbudgeted works were identified for remediation and (as observed regularly by members feedback) addressed as required to see the 'best' operation possible noting both the age of gates themselves and the sheer volume of use they see.

The deemed 'last piece' works to Gate 4 (Oxshott Way/Stoke Road) is expected to take place in the week commencing 22 September. Once this work plus the water main replacement adjacent to Gate 1 (top of Oxshott Rise) have concluded, the ANPR testing can take place to support the 'Go Live' date to move to ANPR controlled access to the estate.

The comprehensive cleaning of gates was completed to time and budget last month.

Roads

The scope of works this year will be limited, noting impact of the drains programme to road surfacing has been modest with high quality remediation by Premier. A small number of pothole patches will be made (timing to be advised) and small remediation will be completed to a number of locations where water ingress to gullies can be improved.

Roads Sweeps

Over the next few months, as leaf fall increases, road sweeps will increase in frequency to take place fortnightly. The next few road sweeps are currently scheduled to take place on:

• 20th September

• 4th October

• 18th October

• 1st November

Please ensure vehicles and bins are off the roads to enable all areas to be cleared of autumn leaves and prevent as much debris as possible from going into the drains.

Trees & Verges

During our tree survey in June our tree surgeon Mark Lindsey identified a number of trees that will require pruning / reductions and in some cases removal.

Whilst most of these works will be carried out in January, a few trees require earlier attention due to their poor state. These include a large red oak on Harebell Hill, which in spite of being materially reduced last year has continued to die and now presents safety issues due to dead branches. We will try to contact residents affected by significant tree works in advance.

Mark also watered our new trees on several occasions over the summer, given the extreme dry conditions, which has in all cases enabled those trees to survive. It’s also good to see the verges greening up again after recent rainfall.

Our Estate gardener, Enzo, continues to maintain the entrances and islands of the Estate and has recently cut back the hedges surrounding the various entrances.

Changes to the Board

When David Cope stood down as Board Chairman in April 2024, he agreed to remain on the Board to oversee the drains project and he spent much time on that over the last 18 months. Now that Premier have completed their works, David  has recently resigned from his position on the Board and we would like to thank him for his contribution to OWRA over the last four years. At present, we do not have a volunteer to take over David’s position on the Board and we are now down to 5 Directors  which is the minimum required under our Articles for the Board to operate as envisaged. The Board is keen to recruit additional members to enable more of the existing team (who have all served for several years and “done their bit” for the Estate) to move on if they wish to. If you are willing to help, we’d be very glad to hear from you – please contact Graham Marr (graham.marr@owra.co.uk or chairman@owra.co.uk) if you are able to assist. 

Best wishes,

The OWRA Board.